Vedanta Resources lands $6bn for Cairn Energy bid

Friday 19 November 2010 09:07 BST

Mining giant Vedanta today said it had secured $6 billion (£3.8 billion) of financing to back its planned deal to take a majority stake in Cairn India.

A consortium of eight banks, Barclays Capital, Royal Bank of Scotland, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered, is coming up with the cash. They will syndicate the loans shortly.

Vedanta intends to buy anything from 50% to 61% in Cairn India at a cost of up to $9.6 billion.

The financing comes in four tranches with maturity dates ranging from 18 months to four years.

There was no immediate indication of what kind of interest the loans will pay.

Anil Agarwal, chairman of Vedanta, said the financing meant the group had much greater financial flexibility and was "a testament to the strength of the Vedanta story".